New funding fix? ¿Solución por impuesto?

New funding fix?

Photos: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office

He’s calling it the “fair fix” to the transit system crisis.

After being pushed by transit advocates to back a plan for reduced price Metrocards for low-income subway and bus riders, Mayor Bill de Blasio is finally moving in that direction – and tying that proposal to help approximately 800,000 low-income commuters with a new tax for the city’s wealthiest residents in order to raise as much as $800 million annually to modernize the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The new tax is expected to affect about 32,000 tax filers.

The new tax, which would affect about 32,000 tax filers, would increase the city’s highest income tax rate from 3.876 percent to 4.41 percent on taxable incomes above $500,000 for individuals and above $1 million for couples.

The tax is projected to raise $700 million in 2018, before rising to $820 million a year by 2022. This would add to an annual $1.6 billion in city operational support for subways and buses, and a $2.5 billion commitment in 2015 to the long-term needs of the MTA.

A supporter of the mayor’s plan.

“Rather than sending the bill to working families and subway and bus riders already feeling the pressure of rising fares and bad service, we are asking the wealthiest in our city to chip in a little extra to help move our transit system into the 21st century,” said de Blasio on Mon., Aug. 7th. “Instead of searching for a quick-fix that doesn’t exist, or simply forking over more and more of our tax dollars every year, we have come up with a fair way to finance immediate and long-term transit improvement and to better hold the state accountable for the system’s performance.”

De Blasio said that funding should be immediately directed toward core infrastructure improvements like signals, new cars and track maintenance.

Half-priced MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers would be financed by an expected $250 million of the revenue raised by this tax.

But MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said the mayor’s tax plan would take too long to see results.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for a new tax on the city’s highest earnings.

“The good news is that Mayor de Blasio has acknowledged New York City’s significant ownership of the New York City Transit Authority and the fact that new funding is needed to modernize the subway system,” said Lhota. “The bad news is that the Mayor has not acknowledged that the MTA needs funding today. You can’t delay an emergency plan to stop delays. The challenges the subways are facing today need immediate resources and solutions right now, not years from now.”

John Raskin, Executive Director of the Riders Alliance, agreed with de Blasio’s plan and also called on the state to increase funding for the MTA.

“A millionaire’s tax would require some New Yorkers to pay, but the status quo requires literally millions of New Yorkers to pay in the form of lost wages, missed work and days ruined by breakdowns and delays,” said Raskin. “It’s fair to ask the New Yorkers who benefit the most from our city’s prosperity to pay a little more to repair the infrastructure that the entire economy relies on.”

“It’s time to end a system where low-income New Yorkers have to skip meals, beg for swipes or even jump turnstiles in order to get to work or school,” Raskin added. “After years of inattention, our transit system is in a rapidly unfolding crisis, with service quality plummeting and riders increasingly enraged. Any real path to a solution will require Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers to stand up for riders and establish a sustainable funding source for the MTA.”

Advocates have called for reduced fares for over a year.Photo: Riders Alliance

The proposed tax would need to be passed in Albany by the State legislature, which has to date proven resistant to such measures. A similar proposal from de Blasio in 2015 to levy an additional tax on high income earners failed to pass.

And on Monday, legislative leaders in Albany did not rush to welcome the idea. While a spokesperson for the State Assembly said that the mayor’s proposal would be one of many to examine in the next legislative session, State Senator John Flanagan, the Republican leader of the State Senate, was far more blunt in the statement his office issued: “Raising taxes is not the answer.”

After the mayor’s announcement, members of Transit Workers’ Union (TWU) Local 100 said they were not averse to the enactment of the tax in future legislative sessions, but said the mayor needed to address the funding gap immediately.

“There is a crisis now, not next year,” said Local 100 Secretary Treasurer Earl Phillips. “The mayor has a $4 billion surplus. [He] needs to dip into that surplus now to help ease the current emergency.”